Ultimately, the goal is to prevent medical necessity denials before they occur, rather than chasing them down after claims rejections or denials. Consider the following eight steps to mitigate medical necessity denials in physician practices and medical groups.
There are five category codes for diabetes mellitus in ICD-10-CM. Diabetes due to underlying conditions, category E08, requires clear documentation of the underlying condition as follows. This includes hyperosmolarity, ketoacidosis, kidney complications, ophthalmic complications, neurological complications, circulatory complications, other specified complications, and unspecified complications and w/o complications.
Specific concerns for cardiology include incorrect documentation for certain common conditions. To ensure accurate assignment of codes, documentation must support the specificity of each code category.
CDI should be embedded in each practice’s workflow from the time the patient registers for an appointment through the actual encounter and during the billing period. This includes training on ICD-10 documentation requirements for front-office staff, all providers who document in the record, and back-end staff.
Ischemic cardiomyopathy: The diagnosis of ischemic cardiomyopathy must also state the type (dilated/congestive, obstructive or nonobstructive, hypertrophic), location (endocarditis, right ventricle), and the cause (congenital or alcohol).
Second, the ICD-10 grace period for physician practices comes to a close as of Oct. 1, 2016. And finally, almost 6,000 new ICD-10 codes will be added that same day as the partial code freeze concludes. These factors will impact all providers, but they will be especially notable within physician practices and medical groups.
Going forward, physician practices must devote ample time and resources to combat medical necessity denials. While it’s true that the potential for medical necessity denials is greater in ICD-10, consistent implementation of solid processes for denial mitigation across your physician practice or medical group is a smart strategy.
(That’s right; medical necessity isn’t just for that pesky therapy cap .) “For a service to be considered medically necessary, it must be reasonable and necessary to diagnosis or treat a patient’s medical condition ,” explains this Physicians Practice article.
In a little under two months, the entire US healthcare system will transition to ICD-10—and trust us,...
The physician performs a nonstress test to check on the baby’s condition. If the coder reports a diagnosis code for just an office visit, the payer will likely deny the bill for the nonstress test for lack of medical necessity.”. Okay, you get it: coding for medical necessity has to happen when it comes to ICD-10.
For that reason, do not copy the codes supplied in the patient referral. Use the physician diagnosis to inform you on the patient’s situation, sure; but then use your own clinical judgment and skills as a medical professional to diagnose the patient based on what you’re actually going to treat.
Furthermore, avoid the “cheat sheet” strategy. As most providers know, certain CPT codes are only payable when used in conjunction with certain ICD-9 codes. Thus, you may be tempted to quickly crosswalk those ICD-9 codes and tack up a new cheat sheet. Don’t. The rules aren’t the same, and crosswalks typically yield unspecified ICD-10 equivalents. As this ICD-10 for PT article explains, “…one of the main battle cries of the new code set is increased specificity, and the transition to ICD-10 represents a giant step away from the use of unspecified codes (unless one of those codes truly represents the most accurate description of a patient’s condition). Thus, if you submit an unspecified code when a more specific code is, in fact, available, you could put yourself at risk for claim denial.”
If you simply use whatever ICD-10 codes came from the referring physician, you likely won’t be using the codes most applicable to the services you performed. As a result, you may suffer a denial.
Medicare defines “medical necessity” as services or items reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of illness or injury or to improve the functioning of a malformed body member.
To better support medical necessity for services reported, you should apply the following principles: 1. List the principal diagnosis, condition, problem, or other reason for the medical service or procedure. 2.
If a pattern of such claims can be established, and the provider knows or should know that the services reported were not medically necessary, the provider may face monetary penalties, exclusion from Medicare program, and criminal prosecution.
For all payors and insurance plans, even if a service is reasonable and necessary, coverage may be limited if the service is provided more frequently than allowed under a national coverage policy, a local medical policy, or a clinically accepted standard of practice.
Claims for services deemed to be not medically necessary will be denied. Further, if Medicare (or any other payer) pay for services that they later determine to be not medically necessary, they may demand that those payments be refunded (with interest).